Couple more things before I can consider the front end done.
I didn't like the limited steering throw even with the steering mod kit from BM. I moved the steering linkage all the way forward and the bellcrank hits 2 of the upper mounts from the bulkhead. I noticed that these are starting to crack along the parting line (from the mold) anyway so I cut them off to provide more steering linkage clearance.
Now the bellcrank is further forward and you can see I only have 2 of the upper mount bolts in place. I think this will be fine strength wise as these 2 bolts have much more thread engagement. I didn't take a picture but the steering links are now about perfectly parallel to the suspension links. No bump steer and it almost turns the knuckle completely from one direction to the other. I've almost maximized the amount of steering you can get out of an exo knuckle.
To finish the mounting, the knuckles need some grinding to clear the big shrouds of the MIP drive shafts.
In addition I had to grind away some material on the upper link mount (of the hub) so the larger traxxas rod end would fit on the outer most hole. You can see from the completed shot below that the inner link mounts on the shock tower are in the upper/outer holes. This is needed to clear the MIP's near the diff. To keep the camber reasonably straight I had to move the hub mounting of the suspension link to the outer most hole, hence the grinding required. Don't have a specific picture, but if you do this mod, youll see. You can also see the Axial HD toe mount for the suspension arms. I'm hoping that any heavy front end collisions are handled easily by this.
Lastly, you can see I moved the shock mounts to the front of the A arm. They actually do fit in the stock shock location (surprisingly) but the Gmad piggybacks are pretty big in Dia. The spring clears by less than 1mm in normal stance. With the CVD's in there now, when you turn the hub right or left, the cvd axle shifts forward or rearward, respectively. When turning right it pushes the cvd shaft right into the spring. Out here they work just fine and don't rub the cvd. Only time will tell if the rocks beat up the rod ends too much. The DMG took his female MIP portion and turned them down which clear the shocks easily. I don't have a lathe so I'll go with this for now.
I am still waiting on my RPM A arms but I'll run these stock Exo ones for a while and see if they hold up.
Dna
"thumbsup"
